Case Number 19795: Small Claims Court

MOBY DICK (1956)

The Charge

The Case

It's hard to imagine a director better-suited to adapting Herman Melville's
Moby Dick than the great John Huston. The director loved tales of outdoor
adventure and obsessive characters, and has any literary figure been noted for
his obsession quite so much as Captain Ahab? Alas, Huston's adaptation has
typically generated mixed opinions over the years, with many criticizing the
choice of Gregory Peck in the crucial role of Captain Ahab. There's no question
that Huston's Moby Dick is a flawed film, but it's deserving of another
look: this is a fascinating flick with a whole lot of virtues worth noting.

The narrator of the story is Ishmael (Richard Basehart, The Satan
Bug), a restless sailor intent on experiencing life on a whaling ship for
the first time. He joins a ship led by the mysterious Captain Ahab (Gregory
Peck, The Omen), a brooding man with a wooden leg and an ominous scar on
his face. Ahab lost his leg to the legendary white whale Moby Dick, and he's
intent on getting revenge. It takes a while to persuade the crew that the
mission of vengeance is one worth taking, but Ahab eventually wins the full
support of his crew. Who will win the furious sea battle between man and
beast?

One of the film's greatest virtues is the splendidly cinematic manner in
which it casts a spell of doom over the proceedings. Each important element is
given a generous amount of ominous build-up before it arrives, giving us the
sense that we are witnessing a slow, inexorable march towards doom. The first
genuinely superb scene comes early on, as all of the local townsfolk gather into
a church to worship before Ahab and his crew takes off on their voyage. Most of
the sailors are quite religious and superstitious; they dare not miss church
before embarking upon a dangerous voyage. As the service begins, the choir sings
a dark, minor-key hymn that sounds more like a funeral dirge. The camera slowly
pans towards the front of the church, examining tributes to dead sailors along
the walls. Finally, when the song is ending, the stern Father Mapple (Orson
Welles, The Third Man) emerges, climbs on top of a giant replica of a
ship's mast and delivers a fiery sermon: "Delight is to him who coming to
lay him down can say, 'O Father, mortal or immortal, here I die.'"

From there, we build to Captain Ahab, as the character isn't properly
introduced until after the 30-minute mark. Everyone who has served with Ahab
speaks of him in mysterious hushed tones. Ishmael, being a man of religious
superstition like everyone else, hesitates when he recalls that Ahab was the
name of an evil king in the Bible. He hesitates a bit more after being
approached by a scruffy "prophet" named Elijah (Royal Dano, The
Right Stuff) who essentially declares that Ahab is nothing short of evil
incarnate. "He is a champion of darkness," one of the crew members
declares. "This is an evil mission." Maybe so, but even this supposed
Prince of Darkness seems fragile in contrast to the famed Moby Dick. Ahab speaks
of finding and destroying the whale with a religious fervor, and his speeches
tend to be framed in epic terms: "Speak not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd
strike the sun if it insulted me."

This is grand stuff, hypnotically portentous and benefiting from Ray
Bradbury's exceptionally elegant screenplay. Huston encourages his actors to
strike bold notes, and most of the cast responds by vigorously embracing this
material. The Orson Welles speech is a good starting point in terms of setting
the film's tone; the actor's theatrical delivery is also found in the
performances of most of the members of Ahab's crew. Standing out considerably is
Friedrich von Ledebur (The 27th Day) as Queequeg, the pagan cannibal and
headhunter whose lack of Christian values is forgiven due to his skill with a
harpoon. The performance could have easily fallen into camp, but the actor sells
some challenging scenes with great conviction.

If there's a weak point in the cast...honestly, I feel Basehart's Ishmael is
more of a liability than Peck's Ahab. Ishmael is just such a bland, vanilla
character, wandering through the proceedings as an innocent audience surrogate
without really being able to add much. Peck's performance, though a bit awkward
at times, is an intriguing variation on the character. Peck may have been
established as a handsome, good-natured leading man, but he had already
demonstrated on multiple occasions that he was capable of digging into dark
emotional territory. It's a grim performance that works well for the most part,
particularly during Ahab's scenes of quiet brooding. However, I must admit that
Peck's blustering delivery of, "I spit my last breath at thee, ye damned
whale!" always struck me as being fairly amusing.

Now, I haven't yet pointed out that this review is being written some nine
years after this film was released on DVD. This is due to the fact that MGM is
re-releasing a handful of classic titles with noteworthy literary inspirations,
adding a nice little bookmark as a bonus. Unfortunately, this disc serves as a
testament to just how far we've come in terms of DVD transfers in the past year.
The film was originally shot and distributed in either 1.66:1 or 1.85:1
widescreen (opinion seems to vary), but was trimmed to full frame for its
initial home video release and has remained that way ever since. The fact that
the film is in full-screen is bad enough, but the transfer is also just ugly.
The darker scenes are a murky mess, while everything else tends to be soft and
lacking in detail. The audio is just as bad, with the bombastic score sounding
badly damaged and the dialogue sometimes being muffled to the point of
incoherence. The only extra on the disc is a trailer.

Moby Dick is a worthy entry on Huston's resume, but this DVD release
remains disappointing. Still, I suppose it'll have to do until someone decides
to rescue it with a handsome special edition.